A temple built for Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a Bharatiya Janata Party worker in Pune was closed on Wednesday after heavy criticism from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, The Times of India reported.
Mayur Munde, the BJP worker and a real estate agent, had inaugurated the temple on Independence Day. It had a statue of the prime minister and featured the BJP’s lotus symbol. He spent around Rs 1.6 lakh on the temple, according to PTI.
Speaking to reporters two days after the inauguration, Munde said he was inspired by Modi’s work and thought that the leader who built the Ram temple in Ayodhya should have a shrine of his own, PTI reported.
“After becoming prime minister, PM Modi has done a lot of developmental work and dealt with issues such as the abrogation of Article 370 in Jamm and Kashmir, building the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and abolishing the triple talaq successfully,” he had said.
The Congress called Munde’s temple the “height on fanaticism”, according to The Times of India. “On the one hand, BJP is removing names of former prime ministers from schemes and on the other, its workers are building temples of its leaders,” Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil said on Tuesday.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Prashant Jagtap spoke out against the “undue glorification of individuals”. “Every individual has the right to follow his/her school of thoughts,” he said. “But this type of initiatives of building temple of individual leaders will give a wrong message to society.”
After the backlash, the temple building was covered with paper. Modi’s statue was also removed from the structure late on Wednesday, according to The Times of India.
The next day, NCP workers went to temple to perform mock rituals as a mark of protest against the rising fuel prices in India, ANI reported. They expressed disappointment after finding Modi’s statue missing.
“We had come to the temple and wanted to offer petrol, LPG and food items to the idol as their prices are running at an all-time high,” Jagtap told The Indian Express. “We had decided to pray at the temple to bring down the prices of necessary items, provide employment to youths and solve civic problems of the city but we were disappointed that the bust of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been removed.”
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